Tex (Epsilon)
Epsilon-Tex first appeared in Backup Plans. She was created by Epsilon, as the original Tex by Alpha, as a by-product based upon the memories of Allison. Role in Plot Awakening Epsilon-Tex was seen in Revelation in a memory flash by Epsilon watching him as he attempts to preach at the funeral. Epsilon also talked about a girl, which is later revealed to be Tex, before passing out. Epsilon-Tex reappears in Backup Plans, after Epsilon discovers an underground auxiliary project freelancer base. In a room only allowed access to by the Director was a small, human sized chamber, that Epsilon opens at the end of Perusing the Archive. Eventually, Epsilon-Tex ominously busts down the steel door and defeats a team of Tucker, Simmons, Grif and Sarge, before being challenged by Epsilon himself, who has now taken a new body from the room Epsilon awoke Tex from, in which there were many spare bodies. Tex easily bests him with his previous Monitor body, however Caboose activates the Armor Lock on Tex's armor, restraining her. This lockdown protocol also affects everyone else in the room except Caboose. Epsilon later had a debate with Tucker and the Reds about letting Tex free from armor lock, resulting in Tucker saying she is meaner than his (non-existent) ex-wife. Epsilon enters Tex's body and he and Tex come to an agreement to let her out as long as she doesn't beat anyone up, however she says that she will hit Tucker for his ex-wife crack. Epsilon agrees and asks F.I.L.S.S. to turn off armor lock for all units while assuring the others that she will be fine. This frees Tex, who proceeds to hit Tucker in the face for his ex-wife crack. Afterwards, Tex catches up on what she's missed since she was last active, which turns out not to be as much as she was expecting. However, she still wants to know more information in regards to who she really is. After Epsilon agrees to provide her "Director level" access to F.I.L.S.S.'s files for this reason, Tex attempts to find the location of Freelancer Headquarters, but quickly discovers that the group had destroyed it during the events of Reconstruction, much to her annoyance. Searching For the Truth She then enlists Simmons's help in eliciting more information from F.I.L.S.S., although the A.I. proves to be difficult to interrogate (as much of the information is restricted to the Director only). When Epsilon-Church, posing as the director accesses the files however, it is shown that the Counselor calls Tex "a byproduct" meaning that she is actually an A.I. based on trait (Failure) rather than a specific personality. Nonetheless, she manages to find information about a Freelancer base that piques her interest, and informs the group of her departure. Epsilon-Church, however, refuses to let her go alone. She allows him to, musing that he could be of some use once they arrive. At a Freelancer base, Tex makes quick work of the guards there just before Epsilon arrives. They then enter the facility, at which point she tells Epsilon that this is where Project Freelancer had once kept Alpha. Evidently, she was the one who had led a group of rogue Freelancers to rescue the Alpha, refusing to let the A.I. suffer at the hands of the project's continued experiments, and revealed that the Director used other A.I., including Gamma and Omega, to help him. However, she failed her mission and Alpha's mental state had deteriorated past the breaking point, where he did not even recognize Tex. In a defeated tone, she confesses to Epsilon the belief that the fault all lied with her. After searching the facility, Tex decides that the elusive Director will have the answers she needs. Tex believes that the whereabouts of the Director are known by Washington and the Meta and shoots Epsilon in the foot to summon them. Epsilon's recovery beacon triggers, alerting Wash and Meta from the desert. Tex then leaves Epsilon incapacitated as she makes preparations for her fellow ex-Freelancers' arrival. Battle at Sidewinder When they finally appear, Wash incorrectly ascertains that a Freelancer must be hiding out somewhere, but soon discovers set explosives which promptly blows them up. Wash and the Meta (as well as Doc) survive the surprise attack, and quickly find and engage Tex in hand-to-hand combat. However, in order to even the odds against her two adversaries, she planted numerous weapons all over the battlefield, including a Chaingun, an Assault Rifle, a Battle Rifle, and multiple explosives, which collapse part of the area. However, she fails to best them and an overzealous Meta stabs Tex in the face with a capture unit, trapping her inside. The Meta then uses this unit to give himself Tex's signature ability: Cloaking. He then betrays Wash, with Wash attempting to fight back, however, the Meta easily bests him. Fortunately, he is saved by the sudden arrival of the Reds and Blues. After the Meta is temporarily incapacitated, Epsilon pleads with Wash to let Tex out of the unit. Wash, however, explains that the unit is one-way, and that he won't be able to let her out without the necessary tools. He eventually agrees to help after Epsilon promises to come with him if he should save her. At this point, Epsilon clarifies Tex's real identity: she is an A.I. who was once part of the Alpha. However, unlike the fragments who were pieces of the Alpha's shattered psyche, Tex is a full A.I. byproduct and was based on the memories of the real Allison, a woman the Director had loved who died years before. As a result, she would always be doomed to fail in anything she tried to accomplish. .]] Epsilon made the decision to follow Tex into the unit in an attempt to find her. Inside, he describes finding her inside the massive data stores as like looking for a good memory, saying that you always push it away the harder you try to remember it, and how you need to patient and let it come to you. Rather then seeking her out, Epsilon stays in a recreation of Blood Gulch created from his memories, saying that if he is going to wait for Tex to find him in a memory for forever, it should be a good one. Inside the Memory Unit Tex arrives inside the memory unit and throws a flashbang grenade at the center of the Blues. They believe they are under attack and fire blindly in the sky while Tex watches from a nearby hill. She approaches them and asks about their dead soldier. Epsilon, in an effort to get her to stay, tells her a fake soldier name. After calling Command, Tex tells the Blues that she'll help them by evening the teams, thus killing a Red. After some debate, Tex kills Lopez with a sniper rifle, now evening the teams. Later on, Epsilon attempts to talk to Tex alone while she works on the tank, but is interrupted by Caboose. In another attempt, Epsilon successfully speaks with her while she worked on the tank. She reveals she knows all about the real world, surprising Epsilon, and says she doesn't know why the Director made her. The tank suddenly activates, in which Tex tells Epsilon "See what happens when you treat something right?" and he, thinking about Tex, replies "Yeah. Yeah, as a matter of fact, I think I do." As time passes, Grif insults the Blue Team in order to obtain a bomb. Tex gets mad and decides to kill all the Reds. By using a robot kit, Tex builds Andy and inconspicuously places him at Red base. After many sudden earthquakes, Tex and the Blues decide to flee Blood Gulch, but Epsilon decides to stay behind. While Caboose and Tucker escape in the tank, Tex stays with Epsilon as well. The two then share a heartfelt moment together, where Epsilon reveals he knows now what the Director and Alpha couldn't figure out. He then tells her that he has three words for her. Despite Tex not wanting to hear them, believing it to be "I love you", Epsilon tells her "I forget you." As a result, Tex disappears, having been freed by Epsilon. Personality Epsilon-Tex's personality is almost completely identical to that of the original Tex. There are slight variations, however, most noticeably the fact that she is much kinder with Epsilon than her previous incarnation was, demonstrated chiefly by the fact that she acknowledges that she is Church's girlfriend, something the original Tex never did. It is possible that their relationship is better because it is more closely based on that of the original Leonard Church and his lost love Allison, on whom Tex is based. This is because, since Epsilon-Tex is a side product of the creation of Epsilon-Church, which is the memory of the Alpha, it retains a better memory of what the relationship between Dr. Church and Alison was like. Despite her soft spot for Church, Tex retains most of her violent traits; as displayed when she attacks the Reds immediately after being released and later when she shows no hesitation in preparing to kill Washington when he fails to give her information on the Director (though he was saved by the Meta). Skills and Abilities Epsilon-Tex, like the original, possesses great skill as a fighter, having the ability to fight and defeat Grif, Simmons, Sarge and Tucker in a four-on-one fight. She repeatedly bests them throughout the fight, with every single attempt on their part failing. Her skill in martial arts is further displayed where she took on and was a match for both Washington and the Meta throughout most of the fight. Along with her skills in martial arts, she seems to have enough knowledge of military tactics to modify them for her own use, as displayed at the end of Rally Cap, where she sets up a trap that, at first glance, looks like a setup for a sniper when in reality was actually a trap made up of an array of trip mines. When compared to the original Tex, however, Epsilon-Tex lags behind in combat performance. This is likely due to the lack of the A.I. Omega, which the original Tex possessed and Epsilon-Tex does not. During Introductions, the original Tex displayed the ability to fight, defeat and completely overwhelm York, Wyoming and Maine in a 3-on-1 fight. In Reunion, however, Epsilon-Tex was shown to only barely hold her own against Wash and the Meta, possibly due to their increase in skill, in which she lost in the end; this resulted in her getting trapped in the Capture Unit. Keep in mind that at this time, the Meta in particular had no access to any A.I. and had no ability to use any of the armor enhancements he possessed, therefore equating roughly to his abilities as the former agent Maine. The two did possess better teamwork than the trio who faced the original Tex in Introductions. Failures Similar to her original counterpart, Epsilon-Tex is based on a woman Dr. Leonard Church loved, but died, leaving him with only the memory of this, and because of this, she is fated to fail at everything she does as Epsilon-Church explained. *While fighting the Reds in Revelation, she ran out of ammo as she was about to kill Grif, and as she was about to kill Tucker with his own sword, it turned off, because it only works for Tucker. *Her attempts to kill Agent Washington and the Meta on Sidewinder ultimately failed when the Meta stabbed her in the face with the capture unit, trapping her inside it. *While inside the Epsilon unit, she failed to kill the Reds with a bomb she built, which, ultimately, didn't detonate. Trivia *All scenes in Halo 3 featuring Tex were created using the leader traits to make Tex's armor Black. This is because Black was not a selectable color in Halo 3 without using leader traits. *On the Rooster Teeth Reddit AMA, after a fan asked whether Tex would return after Season 9, Burnie Burns responded with "You might have seen the end of Tex's story without seeing all of Tex's story. Make sense?" References Category:Characters Category:Freelancer Category:Blue Team Category:AI Category:Epsilon-Double Category:Missing in Action